Shadow of Selene This incredibly exciting science fiction space opera, written by David T. Gilbert, spans thousands of years from the union of the Roman empire’s military power and the Song Chinese empire’s political acumen after they helped each other out against the northern hordes that assaulted them both. The reader is guided through a fast-paced voyage into the prohibited development of human quantum minds that wander the cosmos by how the union of these two empires into one has affected our exploration of deep space centuries later. The worst political anxieties of the Roman-Sino Empire are put aside, at least temporarily, when a horrifying alien encounter alters the chances of our species’ existence.
In a way that only excellent science fiction can, this first of three books takes the reader on a voyage of learning and development for its odd, little crew of space-faring heroes.
The novel represents our apprehension of artificial intelligence, its effects on society, and the fight to preserve humanity’s fundamental integrity as the compassionate species that our African ancestors intended us to be.
Sorrento, a young woman from a small, heavily populated farming world in outer space, tells the story. She longs vainly to leave her little, constrained world and possesses a tremendous aptitude for robots engineering. However, she also possesses Bobby, the standard Personal Intelligent Android Companion (PIAC) that was given to her as a child and that she has upgraded so frequently that it has evolved considerably from the Empire’s original standard design.
Accidentally bringing to light a history of the Empire’s experimental military AI, this unbreakable couple awakens a secret that has been kept on their tiny planet for generations. What and who they discover sends them into space to assist in revealing secret truths from a past of pervasive conspiracies and deceptions.
The reader investigates the forces at work, both visible and unseen, as well as an alien encounter that brings down the Empire and compels it to allow for radical development.
Along with a gripping plot that holds the reader’s interest the entire time, the world- and character-building are convincingly deep and detailed. The book’s main characters, as well as the society they come into contact with, grow and change as a result of exciting plot turns.
David T. Gilbert is a history enthusiast, a seasoned globe traveller, and someone who cherishes the principles that underpin various different civilizations through ritual and community. This is where there is undeniable proof that we are a compassionate species, created to take care of ourselves, one another, and our world. Gilbert is primarily interested in how this might be the compass that ultimately enables us to moderate the important AI-related issues we currently confront.
